Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 304

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18. The Civil population of the Colony amounts to 3,000 white, 1,000 coloured, and 150,000 Chinese.

19. The Tung Wa Hospital ought to attend to the wants of most of these hundreds of thousands, as it was established for the relief of sick Chinese, especially destitutes, but it is little more than a poor house of limited dimensions, into which the sick poor are by no means readily admitted.

20. The Tung Wa authorities decline to receive persons suffering from leprosy, venereal disease, any disease which they think is incurable, and any case in which they suspect the person to be addicted to opium.

21. All these they refuse to treat, and others they send away because they are unable to deal with them, having no surgical knowledge.

22. Only the other day, a Chinese Seaman was taken there with his lower jaw smashed, and refused admittance.

23. In fact the Establishment is an anachronism, and it is difficult to understand how, in a British Colony, a Hospital can continue to exist in which the physicians and surgeons know nothing of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, surgery, medicine or midwifery.

24. Such an institution, partly established, maintained and controlled by the Government, must exercise great influence in the Colony, and be a considerable bar to the enlightenment of the Chinese

mind.

25. I understand that a certain amount of vaccination is performed in the Tung Wa Hospital, and that a few persons, who would otherwise die in the Street, find there a shelter in their last moments.

26. Beyond this all the regular Hospital work of the Colony falls upon the Civil Hospital.

27. In the beginning of 1885 the Civil Hospital work was carried on in the old Lock Hospital, then in course of reconstruction, and in the female Lock Hospital, while the Medical officer in charge was lodged some distance off in Richmond Terrace.

28. The Hospital is still housed in the same two buildings, but a commodious four-roomed residence adjoining, has been built for, and is now occupied by the Superintendent.

29. The conversion of the old Lock Hospital into a portion of the New Civil Hospital is now completed, and the reconstructed block contains:----

Four general wards holding,

Four small private rooms for men,

One women's ward,

Two small private rooms for women,

.48 patients.

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on the ground floor are the waiting room, Colonial Surgeon's Office, Superintendent's Office, Apothe cary's quarters, Dispensary and drug store, Stewards' quarters, and store rooms, and ward masters' quarters, and the basement also is used for stores.

30. This comprises about two thirds of the accommodation required by the Civil Hospital, and there still remain to be built wards for about 35 patients, quarters for the Chinese attendants, coolies, &c., 30 in number, a laboratory for chemical manipulations, and a laundry.

31. In the meantime the Female Lock Hospital is used for these purposes as far as possible, the Lock Hospital Staff and patients being housed in some private residences hired for them.

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32. The rent of these private houses is $1,080 a year, which will be saved to the Treasury when the Civil Hospital is completed and the Lock Hospital returned to its proper occupants.

33. The construction of the New Civil Hospital as far as it has proceeded is open to adverse criticism.

34. It has a number of the faults to be expected in old buildings adapted to Hospital use, but for some of its defects there is no excuse.

35. The latrines and lavatories are entirely new from roof to basement, and while it would have been so easy to arrange them well, considerable ingenuity seems to have been expended in making them as defective as possible.

36. There is moreover no hot water laid on anywhere, and when the top floor is occupied by 32 patients, the labour of carrying up hot water for baths and dressings is a very heavy addition to the proper duties of the nurses.

37. In these days when mechanical appliances for saving labour are carried to perfection, and when their value in Hospitals is especially recognized, the almost entire absence of them in the New Civil Hospital is remarkable.

38. It is to be hoped that the rest of the Civil Hospital will be built with more regard to the teaching of experience, and the recognized principles of hospital construction.